Chapter 180 Nemesis Attacks

"Gawain: Sarkisian is the strongest opponent in the quarterfinals!"

"Gawain: I'm ready to lose."

"Gowon: Sarkeesian has the ability to beat any player."

When MacDonald opened his Twitter account, he saw all the shocking headlines from major media outlets. He was stunned and at a loss: What on earth is this? Something seems to be wrong!

And that’s not all.

"In the quarterfinals, Gawain will face a severe test, and Sarkisian is likely to continue his journey of causing upsets."

"Dark horse vs. darker horse! After Sarkisian's series of upsets, he will face the biggest dark horse of this season's US Championship, Gao Wen. Who will have the last laugh?"

"Playing styles conflicting with each other? Is Gawain's miraculous journey about to end?"

“ESPN expert: This match is probably the toughest one for Gawain since he arrived in Athens.”

"Sports Column: Sarkeesian's chances of winning?"

"Gawwen's nemesis is on the scene, and the Bruins' rising star faces a tough challenge."

Wait, wait, wait, wait. What are these headlines all about?

What happened overnight? Why did all the media suddenly speak in unison, as if Gao Wen was really going to be eliminated in the quarterfinals?

They have never been treated like this since the U.S. Championships began.

In the first half, the Brown Bears were the undisputed favorites to win the championship and were favored all the way; in the second half, Gao Wen had already established a foothold with his performance in the team competition, and the singles competition naturally won the favor of more experts. The news headlines were always smooth sailing, but today the situation suddenly changed. What happened?

"...Gawain, did I miss something?"

MacDonald blinked, unsure of how to respond.

Gawain was confused, then he looked at MacDonald's phone screen, glanced at a few news headlines, and couldn't help but laugh happily.

"Oh, that's exactly what I said, they just used a magnifying glass to focus on the key words, but this is the basic fact."

Seeing Gawain smiling without any nervousness at all, MacDonald relaxed a little, but still asked nervously.

"But, Gawain, is Sarkisian really that difficult to deal with? Do you need to learn from Clay and Marcos?"

"Mike, tennis matches are like this, every match is new because the status and strength are changing, and the game between the two sides is always changing. Sarkeesian was able to make it to the quarterfinals in Athens, which means he is in good shape now, so we naturally need to pay attention to him."

Gawain answered very seriously, paused, and then gave a slight reminder.

"You too, it's going to be a tough battle today. Hess Olesen is the only seed besides Marcos. Are you ready for the tough battle?"

When the tournament reached the quarterfinals, only two of the sixteen seeds remained, both in the upper half: Marcos Giron of UCLA and Soren-Hess-Olesen of the University of Texas.

If MacDonald and Geelong want to meet in the semi-finals, MacDonald must get past Hess-Olesen today.

In the previous life, McDonald unfortunately stopped in the quarterfinals.

But objectively speaking, McDonald is only a freshman this year, and unlike Gao Wen, he does not have systematic help. He really needs more time to grow slowly and steadily form his own playing style.

Following the original trajectory, after two years of polishing, he successfully won the U.S. singles championship in his junior year, and then turned professional and started a new life.

MacDonald also has his own development trajectory, so Gao Wen just gave him a brief reminder.

Maybe this little butterfly changed history and could also change the trajectory of MacDonald? Let's see if it can bring unexpected surprises.

MacDonald nodded in the affirmative.

"I know."

"Huh... I'm also kind of looking forward to today's game."

Confronting a strong enemy inspires a stronger and more burning fighting spirit, which is really exciting. McDonald is eager to give it a try.

"But, Gawain, what is going on with Sarkeesian?"

Sarkisian, whose full name is Alexander-Sakissian, why has he attracted so much attention?

In fact, Gawain and McDonald are no strangers to Sarkeesian.

Sarkisian is from Pepperdine University, which is also a university located in Los Angeles, located on Malibu Beach. It is a Catholic college affiliated with the NCAA Division I West Coast Conference.

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Pepperdine University's strongest sport is golf, and it is a strong team that competes for the NCAA championship every year, but its overall strength in tennis is mediocre. Relatively speaking, women's tennis is stronger, while men's tennis is generally lackluster.

This season, UCLA and Pepperdine University have played against each other twice in the regular season, once at home and once away. The scores of both games were "4:0". The Bruins defeated their opponents easily and encountered almost no challenges. The whole process was very easy.

Sarkeesian is the undisputed No. 1 singles player at Pepperdine University, ranked 36th in the United States. In the two regular season matches, against Thompson and Gillon, he lost four sets in a row, both games, and his performance was mediocre.

Simply put, Sarkisian is a player they won't pay much attention to.

However, when entering the singles competition stage of the US Championship, Sarkisian shone brightly, standing out among the trend of dark horses shining in Athens, becoming the dark horse among dark horses and being hailed as the "Dark Horse Star".

In the first round, the 13th seed was defeated.

In the second round, they defeated another dark horse that won unexpectedly in the first round.

In the third round, against another dark horse, the player from the University of Minnesota defeated Domyan and Lipitis successively and advanced to the third round. It was a "dark horse vs. dark horse", and then Sarkisian won again.

So, Sarkisian came to Gawain.

According to the development trajectory of the previous life, Gao Wen missed the singles competition of the US Championships, while in the lower half, Sarkeesian truly interpreted the title of "Dark Horse Star", and then defeated two dark horses in succession, and entered the finals in one go, facing Jilong across the net to compete for the championship.

However, Jilong was not a "dark horse" but the only remaining seeded player. As a result, Sarkeesian's "dark horse" light dimmed. He failed to be the dark horse all the way and regretfully lost to Jilong, ending his miraculous journey in the singles arena of the U.S. Championships.

Just as Gao Wen said in the interview, no matter what his national ranking was, Sarkisian was in excellent form and in hot form during the week of singles matches. Coupled with a little bit of luck in the draw, in a draw that was hit by the Siberian cold wave, he staged a miraculous journey of the "Dark Mark Star".

Now, the trajectory of history has changed slightly.

After defeating the dark horses in a row, Sarkisian came to face Gawain, the "dark horse king" of Athens this year. The focus is definitely on which of the two dark horses can continue to be the dark horse.

Moreover, Sarkisian's playing style, if analyzed from a paper perspective, is to some extent restraining Gao Wen, which is also an important reason why the news media is so lively.

(End of this chapter)